Source status: historical and intellectual source in Jungian psychology.
Active imagination is C. G. Jung’s name for a disciplined way of engaging consciously with images, figures, scenes or affect arising in the inner life.
It is more than inventing a preferred picture and less than treating every image as an instruction. The Circle and other imaginal practices in The Sensual Hero’s Journey are in conversation with this tradition, but they are not Jungian analysis and should not be presented as equivalent to it.
Different from: mental imagery. Mental imagery is the broader cognitive capacity to experience sensory-like content without the corresponding external stimulus. Active imagination is a particular Jungian practice and framework for relating to inner material.
Related: The Circle; Imagination; Mental Imagery; What the Work Draws From.
